Oakland City Council President Larry Reid in his letter left no doubt that he is “keenly aware” that a new campus in Oakland would bring prestige, professional jobs and an economic catalyst to Oakland.

A recent study estimates that the Berkeley Lab has a $700 million economic impact on the nine-county Bay Area, and three current off-site lab facilities the new campus would replace generate an estimated $236 million in spending impacts.

Oakland is offering four sites for consideration, and each has a different appeal that could fit with the many attributes the University of California seeks in a new location to house a state-of-the-art research and development facility of about 2 million square feet, including a 3,000-foot-long linear building.

The second lab would consolidate a scattering of leased lab and office space, and ideally, should be within a 20-25 minute commute from the entrance to the main lab entrance in the hills above the UC Berkeley campus. It must also be located in a “safe community to ensure that employees, visitors and guests are safe when coming and returning home from work.”

Oakland has stiff competition. The cities of Alameda, Albany, Berkeley, Emeryville, Dublin, Richmond and Walnut Creek have all responded to university’s request for proposals. And UC could very well decided to scrap them all and build the second campus on land it already owns in Richmond. The university is expected to announce the finalists by mid-April, and could make the final choice in June at the earliest.

Two proposed sites in Oakland would revise former proposals for residential projects, while the other two are purely commercial ventures.

Mandela Corridor Campus:

13.3-acre site on Mandela Parkway and West Grand Avenue in West Oakland that houses the shuttered Pacific Pipe and American Steel factories. There was a previous, now inactive, proposal for a 1,500 unit residential development with three 30-story condominiums and 300,000 square feet of commercial space. Site is zoned for research and development. Close to freeway, bike routes and BART.

Brooklyn Basin:

A 64-acre planned development along the Oakland Estuary south of Jack London Square and near another site proposed for a new baseball stadium. The site is known as Oak to Ninth, a proposed development that has already received city approval for 3,100 residential units, 200,000 square feet of commercial space and 29 acres of open space. Close to freeway and BART.

LBNL 2.0@Kaiser Center:

The only “vertical campus” proposal. Located at Lake Merritt, in downtown Oakland, the project would create two 20-story towers to accommodate the campus. Close to BART, freeway and bike routes.

Bay Area Innovation Center:

Includes the former Zhone Technologies building on Oakport Street in the Airport Business Park near the Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline and Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. Proposal would use existing building for first phase of the lab campus. Room to add buildings as campus grows. Close to freeway, Oakland International Airport and BART, furthest from Berkeley’s main lab.

“We believe that the four Oakland proposals are very responsive as a whole, especially the strongest on transit friendliness and access to amenities, and the fact that they are quite diverse among themselves,” said Walter Cohen, executive director of Oakland’s Community and Economic Development Agency. “We feel very confident that Oakland’s proposals will be seriously considered by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for its shortlist. The city of Oakland intends to work very closely with the selected developers in presenting an even more compelling case why Oakland is the best location for the LBNL Second Campus. (And) we intend to aggressively pursue the LBNL Second Campus in Oakland — it belongs here.”

The city’s package did not favor one site over another, and planning officials assured the university that there would be no undue delays with planning approvals and that each of the sites would be able to comply with a 12-month window for completing state environmental reviews and obtaining approval by the city.

In fact, in the case of Mandela Corridor, a plan for a laboratory campus is in line with city zoning, while the former proposal for housing was not. Maurice Kanbar owns the property and said the 13-acre site is a “great location” for a second lab campus.

The Brooklyn Basin proposal could potentially require the most regulatory work to comply with state environmental regulations.

The shoreline housing development spawned public challenges over open space and affordable housing and required the approval of the Bay Conservation and Development Commission and the State Lands Commission. City staff said they are confident that all changes could be handled within the time frame required by the university.

Michael Ghielmetti, president of Signature Development Group, thinks the university should choose the Brooklyn Basin site because “it’s a gorgeous, waterfront site near transit, amenities such as Jack London Square, and parks.” He’s also confident that revisions to add lab facilities to the previously approved project would not be delayed.

“City officials have been very supportive of (the four Oakland sites) and would love to have the LBNL be part of the community, therefore we believe that all of these issues can be resolved,” Ghielmetti said.

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